Using the " flatlander " scenario, if I were to find a flatlander and pick him up, would he instantly understand up and down?

If so if we were somehow brought into the fourth dimension, would we instantly understand it?

I guess so, I dont know if you have to be a fourth dimensional creature to understand the dimension or if you just have to "be" in the fourth dimension

wth is a flatlander? Bentherdonethat enlighten me

A flatlander that can't understand the third dimension would feel like he was encased in complete darkness by your fingers as you pick him up. Ignoring that, he would simply think everything in his old 2-D existence had disappeared and was replaced by whatever 2-D plane you brought him to.

So no, he wouldn't suddenly understand Up and Down, and by extension we wouldn't conceive a 4th spatial dimension either even though we can TRY to understand it.

For example, if you picture a number line, then every single infinitesimal division on that number line would correspond to a different 3-D coordinate in a 4-D world. That's why people refer to time as the fourth dimension, since you can easily visualize a steady progression from Zero to Infinity, and each successive point on the number line is slightly different spatially, but we understand those differences in position between points as movement from one to the next.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkxieS-6WuA#t=55s

Watch a minute or two of that to get a quick understanding of it.

This post was edited by bentherdonethat on Jul 19 2011 08:11am

Thanks man I appreciate it :)!

No problem See you in your next thread, sir.